Without models: too young, too pretty, too ugly?

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Ms. Eberleh, you sent us photos at the beginning of the "Without Models" initiative to get involved. Meanwhile, a few months have passed. Would you still like to be photographed for us?

Bettina Eberleh: I have become rather hesitant. In the meantime, I've been tracking a few issues without models. At the beginning, I was very curious: who are the readers who are applying, what does the normal woman look like today? But I do not find the women I see in the Chroniques Du VasteMonde normal. And I do not feel like I fit in there.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Why not?

Bettina Eberleh: By and large, these are still beautiful, very, very slim women. If I were contacted now, to take part in it, I would have the feeling: What must be concealed with me everything, so that I fit to those?



ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: You do not feel like you're right for the book as you are?

Bettina Eberleh: Exactly. That I should be what I am. And in addition, women do not just represent beauty and slimness. Now suddenly they have a name and a job and then maybe three more children. And still look so great. That puts me under pressure. It strikes me when I think I have to look like a flamenco dancer from Barcelona, ​​so I like this fashion. That's why I do not really see myself in the ChroniquesDuVasteMonde anymore.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Ms Lazovic, you know the other side. They stood in front of the camera for us: In the ChroniquesDuVasteMonde Issue 7 in March you present lingerie. What did you think when you were asked?



Katharina Lazovic: The photos you took of me were pretty naughty private pictures, of "Facebook" and the last holiday. And my first thought was: If the ChroniquesDuVasteMonde thinks you can make something of it, then I would like to see it myself.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: You were very brave - with the lingerie photos you show a lot of skin.

Katharina Lazovic: I would have seen myself better in everything else. And always, when I told friends, the reaction was like this: "You in lingerie?" And I said, "Yes, imagine!"

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: And how was the photo shoot?

Katharina Lazovic: It started at nine o'clock in the morning, first I sat for an hour in the mask and got a nice hairstyle. After each photo, I could look at the result right on the monitor, and I kept thinking: That's great! Once an outfit did not fit, I felt like the fifth month pregnant, but then we did not take. I was very curious what that would look like in the magazine, and I have to say that not much has changed. That's still me. Well, of course I do not really look that way. , ,



ChroniquesDuVasteMonde Huber: They just put you in the right light. In a nice light.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: In retrospect, do you have the feeling that you are standing next to super women? Or maybe you are one yourself?

Katharina Lazovic: Well, when I looked through the book, I thought: the others all have such fancy jobs, one is an actress, the other restores vintage fashion in LA, and I'm just a logistician for a hamburger forwarder , But that's the way it is, and I think it's okay. I hope there are still a lot of women come in, who are the neighbor type around the corner!

Bettina Eberleh: That you have such a normal job, I find very refreshing. But otherwise you are unfortunately one of the quota women. You finally have curves, so of course you show lingerie. A bra only looks good when it is filled. But jeans fashion or striped tops are photographed on very thin women.

Editor-in-chief ChroniquesDuVasteMonde Huber

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: You say quota women - who else would you expect?

Bettina Eberleh: The artist from Iceland, in the first issue without models! These were terrific shots, but when I flipped through the issue, I had a very bad feeling: There were all very beautiful women, very thin, very young. And then those bleak shots, this older woman with her tattoos, all so dark. This woman came to me as abused to show that we are not just taking young, beautiful women. How to distract from the fact that you just can not manage to show normal women. Or not want to create.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde Huber: But this Icelandic girl arrived incredibly well, with very different people. We found her exciting because she is in her mid-40s and does not look any younger.

Ruth Limmer: I noticed the woman, but not negative.She is an artist, she has performed herself so to speak. And she fits in well with this rugged Icelandic landscape. But what Mrs. Eberleh says about the many young, beautiful, slender women, I see the same way. I've counted times: In the notebooks that I have bought since the launch of "Without Models", three women are over forty. And about three who look as if they're wearing size 40 and not 34/36. Where is the mix left?

Anne Petersen: The majority of the women we photograph for ChroniquesDuVasteMonde will continue to be relatively young in the future. Unlike ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN, we are specifically looking for women over 40. And most women will continue to wear a relatively small dress size. Not necessarily 34, it can also be 38. When we photograph a woman of size 42, we get problems with the pattern pieces that designers send us before the collection hangs in the shops. These sample parts are usually tailored in small sizes. We also cheat now and then, leave a pair of jeans open and simply put on a long top.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Are there any designers who say that we like the ChroniquesDuVasteMonde circuit so much that we would also be providing prototypes in larger sizes?

Anne Petersen: In the meantime, there are already companies that ask us if we want sample parts in larger sizes, which of course makes us happy. Let's see how that evolves. Above all, we have the problem when we take pictures at the beginning of a season. Toward the end of the season things are in all sizes in stores, then we can draw on the full.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde Huber: We did not do a survey, but in the past, nearly every woman we asked for a camera had a size 34 or a maximum of 36. That's not the case anymore. And by age we are, I guess now, on average easily five to ten years older. But what you should not forget: The initiative is called "Without Models". The departure from the skinny models - which we never had in the ChroniquesDuVasteMonde anyway - is just one aspect. Above all, we wanted to get away from this interchangeability. In our eyes, all fashion magazines have a rigid, completely standardized image of women. The slimmer, the better, the least possible joie de vivre, no authenticity. Where do these come from, one wonders, I learn neither the name nor the age nor the nationality. We did not find that up-to-date any more and did not suit ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.

Reader Katharina Lazovic in lingerie

Katharina Lazovic: Why not fitting?

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde Huber: Because otherwise we are always close to our readers. We wanted to break this distance between model and reader. We want to bring the reality of life of the women who wear the fashion in the booklet: Ms. Lazovic, for example, logistics in Hamburg, has a friend in Munich and must manage a long-distance relationship. That's exactly what we want to portray now.

Ruth Limmer: This reality of life is just my problem. I used to be able to console myself with the fact that the beautiful women in the fashion section made their appearance a profession and did not have to worry about anything else. Now I see a lot of women who are not older than 40, just as slim as the models in the past, but also successful in a variety of professions. And most of the time they have some very unusual hobbies and easily implement the greatest ideas. When you look at the ChroniquesDuVasteMonde, the whole world seems to be just super women - except me. Since I miss a bit the identification. A good example, I find that you had a normal waitress in a notebook - but then of course, immediately after the shoot to Australia!

Anne Petersen: We really talked about them in a coffee shop! That with Australia turned out only during the production. Should we have stopped? The woman disappoint because she made this decision? Certainly not! Life is unpredictable, it always comes differently than thought. That is just the exciting thing about the new concept without models, even now with the approximately 25,000 women who would like to join and who we now have in our database. For a while, 150 women applied daily. So the bandwidth is increasing from booklet to booklet, because our options are now completely different. One must not forget: We do this all for the first time!

Vice-Fashion Director Anne Petersen (left)

Katharina Lazovic: How is that really - when I tell people, I was photographed for the ChroniquesDuVasteMonde, then I often hear: "Sure, they have no models now, they have to save."

Anne Petersen: Of course that's not true at all, but that's in many minds. Even my mother was very hard to convince that this is not an austerity measure! The fact is: Of course we pay the women comparable fees. We did not have any models for 10 000 euros a day.And the shootings are now much more elaborate and take longer.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde Huber: It is called "without models", but not "without photographer, without make-up artist, without light". All this now often has to be booked longer, because the women have no practice in front of the camera.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: In the first issue without models, the ChroniquesDuVasteMonde diet started at the same time. Many readers have written us that they find that contradictory or even false. How are you?

Ruth Limmer: I think we'll never get away from that topic. Slenderness will always keep us busy for women, and that would remain so with me, if ChroniquesDuVasteMonde in the future only women from size 40 would show.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde Huber: We wanted to start with the "Without Models" initiative in the first issue of this year, and that's traditionally the book where we're always on our diet. That's what our readers are waiting for. We found that this is not a contradiction. Every woman has the right to change if she does not feel well in her skin. It does not matter if she wants to lose three pounds or 30 pounds. And one thing is for sure: You can not go hungry for the lean model with the ChroniquesDuVasteMonde diet! There are way too many calories. But you can make it, that your favorite jeans no longer pinched.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: We've talked a lot about what's bothering you at the ChroniquesDuVasteMonde without models - what would you wish for? What are your ideas for fashion in ChroniquesDuVasteMonde?

Ruth Limmer: Especially a better mix. More often a 40-year-old, more often one who is not quite so slim, maybe even a very thin one. I just want to see a bigger bandwidth.

Katharina Lazovic: I would like to dress a little more exciting. I had such a phase, because I did not bother, did not put on make-up, just put on a corduroy pants and then a Mickey Mouse T-shirt from H & M for 4.95 euros. But now in my early 30s, I feel like I can make myself pretty. And I wonder, what am I doing with such cool parts that I see of women of size 36? What can I wear? I would like a bit of advice.

Bettina Eberleh: I used to live in Berlin, now I live in Heidelberg. But I do not want to be guided by what I see in Heidelberg. And because I do not have the time to constantly deal with fashion, I wish that the editors do for me, which also have quite different options. And I want to be inspired by that. But it has to be realistic.

Anne Petersen: What does that mean for you?

Bettina Eberleh: Well, I know, I can not wear a tight striped T-shirt, but when I see such a T-shirt with a certain jeans, I think: Actually that's nice! And then maybe I'll take it one size up and try a bit. I just want to get in the mood for fashion, otherwise it will not work. And then I have another wish or rather an idea: I would find it much better, if not on every ChroniquesDuVasteMonde "without models" would be on it. It's really just about women, the way they are. As long as I read "without models", I compare and think: nonsense, that still looks like a model, and I'm annoyed.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: It bothers the negative definition, right? That we show women and say that these are not models, instead of saying: These are just beautiful women.

Bettina Eberleh: Exactly! I wish that one ceases to create such categories, but takes the liberty to say: We want to show the beauty of women.

Anne Petersen: That's our goal! The more it becomes normal that ChroniquesDuVasteMonde does not show any models, the more natural we can handle them. Because that is exactly what we want: to show women as they are.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde Huber: But in the most beautiful light!

v.l.n.r .: Bettina Eberleh, 36, ChroniquesDuVasteMonde reader from Heidelberg, is a freelance artist and mother of two sons

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde Huber, 46, ChroniquesDuVasteMonde editor-in-chief, lives in Hamburg and has two sons

Anne Petersen, 35, Deputy Head of Fashion, lives with her husband and two young children in Hamburg

Katharina Lazovic, 32, reader from Hamburg. The logistics manager was photographed for ChroniquesDuVasteMonde in lingerie (issue 7/10)

Our "no models" initiative at a glance!

I Am Too Pretty (March 2024).



Model, Fashion, Hamburg, Camera, Barcelona, ​​Facebook, Australia, L.A, Logistics, Iceland, Hennes & Mauritz